Have you ever wondered what other people are thinking?

Have you ever thought about why people act the way they do?

Have you ever thought about what your body language is saying that your words aren’t?

It doesn’t matter if you are close to the person or if they are a random stranger. If you observe long enough, they will tell you everything you need to know…. And they won’t even have to say a word.

People watching is one of my favorite activities. It doesn’t matter if it is a coffee shop, social media, an airport, or ??….. I love to observe the people I’m surrounded by. It’s interesting to watch strangers interact, but it is even more interesting to watch someone you know personally. To watch how they move their face and body. How they talk. Their tone and inflection. They will tell you everything you need to know.

Watch when someone is uncomfortable around you. How do they act? Are they standoffish? Do they move their body away from you? Do they make eye contact with you or do they keep from looking in your direction all together? Have you ever wondered why someone you talk to all the time all of a sudden won’t even stand next to you? Or they seem to avoid communicating with you all together? Maybe they have something they need to say to you and don’t know how. Or maybe they are even keeping something from you.

It’s very interesting to watch how relationships evolve as time goes on. How someone can go from a close friend to an acquaintance in what seems overnight. As we drift away from each other, we not only communicate less, but when we do, we move toward the type of communication which we find less intimate. Maybe moving from in person contact to talking over the phone, or moving from calls to texts, or texts to emails… etc. If we watch these closely, we can see how the communication drifts from one form to another until finally, the communication drifts away and we no longer contact each other on a regular basis. Never addressing what went wrong or why. Just allowing it to drift off so we don’t have to face being uncomfortable with a tough conversation.

I want to ask you…

Has this happened to you in an important relationship in the past?

Has moving away from the problem created tension in a place it is unnecessary?

Where do you think you could have done better with your communication?

What would you change? How will you do it differently moving forward?

“You can observe a lot by watching.” Yogi Berra

But we must not only sit by and watch… we have to be conscious of not only our actions (or inactions), but the actions (or inactions) of others.